PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES

RESEARCH:

Work is conducted in the Wetland Center for Biogeochemical
Research at Rice University. Since 1988 this group has been studying the
generation of biogenic atmospheric trace gases and the biological processes
in waterlogged plant-soil environments leading to their formation. These
gases, principally methane and nitrous oxide are important contributors
to global climate change and major components of the chemical system responsible
for stratospheric ozone depletion. Our work originally focused on projects
sponsored by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration in the tundra
and boreal forest wetlands of Northern Canada and Alaska. Our current interests
are in process studies of methane production and possible mitigation strategies
for methane gas emissions from rice paddies and natural wetlands, the source
of nearly half of all methane gas emitted annually to the global atmosphere.

Under the sponsorship of the US Department of Agriculture
and the Ministry of Agriculture of the People's Republic of China. I traveled
extensively in China to develop a cooperative effort between our laboratory
and scientists in China for the study of gas emissions from Chinese and
Indian rice paddies. This work began in May 1993 and has culminated in a
joint research program with the National Agricultural University at Nanjing
the Chinese Academy of Science Atmospheric Sciences Laboratory and the University
of New Hampshire.
Major research programs at Rice University are supported by several institutes.
The Wetland Center for Biogeochemical Research is part of the Energy and
Environmental Systems Institute. This Institute originated in 1991 in order
to coordinate energy and the environmental research in various departments
of science, engineering, public policy, and computing.

Most recently I have initiated a study of science policy issues related
to global, regional, and local climate change. The first project is to consider
various facets of the urban heat island effect in Houston, Texas. This work
is sponsored jointly in the Rice University Center for the Study of the
Environment and Culture and the James Baker Institute of Public Policy.

INTERNATIONAL

Convenor---International
Global Atmospheric Chemistry Program ACTIVITIES Committee on Trace Gas Exchange
in Rice Paddies (RICE).Committee members are scientific experts on atmospheric
chemistry from the United States, Germany, Australia, Philippines, China,
India,Thailand, and Japan. This committee is a part of the program in International
Global Atmospheric Chemistry (IGAC) of the International Geosphere Biosphere
Program (IGBP). The IGBP is part of the International Committee of Scientific
Unions with the United States represented by the National Academy of Science.
As part of this committees activities I am an editor for a book published
by the Japanese National Institute of Agro-Environmental Sciences, which
is the "Proceedings of CH4 and N2O Workshop" held in March,1992
at Tsukuba, Japan.
Consultant---Embrapa Meio Ambiente (Embrapa Environment). Government
of Brazil. Conduct workshops, train scientists, and set up experimental
system to measure tracegas emissions from Brazilian irrigated rice fields.

Consultant---Advisor on Graduate Programs, The Joint
Graduate School of Energy and Environment King Mongkut' s University of
Technology, Bangkok, Thailand

Consultant---Environmental Protection Agency on
Global Climate Change Issues in Agriculture. Activities I have participated
in for the EPA have included workshops on various aspects of trace gas emissions,
contributions to publications on atmospheric trace gases and mitigation
of these gases from agricultural sources. I also serve as part of the oversight
committee to monitor the EPA's program in the Philippines on the effects
of increased carbon dioxide and ultraviolet radiation on agricultural crops
in Asia.

Consultant---United Nations Development Program. As a member of the
External Advisory Committee to the International Rice Research Institute,
I monitor the inter-regional research program on methane emission from rice
fields in China, India, Indonesia, Philippines, and Thailand.

Lead Author---Organisation for Economic Co-operation
and Development. Co-authored the IPPC Guidelines on National Greenhouse
Gas Inventories: Methane Emissions from Rice Cultivation (Reference Manualand
Workbook). Also represented the OECD as an expert at the Twelfth Session
of the IPCC in Mexico City, 1996.

Member---National Science Teachers Association Facilities Task Force.
This committee addresses various questions of school science laboratory
design and safety. It also keeps track of various regulations relating to
laboratory use by students and helps teachers to be aware of them. The committee
also publishes recommended designs for laboratory renovation and construction.

EDUCATIONAL ACTIVITIES

Center for Education

Co-director, Rice University Center for Education,
1988-date.
The Center for Education at Rice University was established in 1988 as the
administrative umbrella for a number of projects in school improvement in
pre-kindergarten through twelfth grade. The mission of the Center is to
improve the education of children at all grade levels by identifying, fostering,
and coordinating individual projects to improve teaching and learning in
pre-college environments in ways that cut across their usual isolation from
each other.

Over the past several years, the Center Directors have
developed several successful and ongoing programs in science, mathematics,
writing, Asian and multicultural studies, early children's literacy, and
in the relationships between Latino students, their families, and schools.
These programs operate primarily in Houston and in some surrounding districts.